Introduction

The order of the day is business as usual, a few bug fixes here and there and updated versions of the most popular applications.

I have had Ubuntu installed for a few weeks now and the reason it has taken so long for this review to come out is that there is very little to say about Ubuntu that hasn't been said before and there are so few new features in Ubuntu 15.10 that you may as well read my review of Ubuntu 15.04 or indeed 14.10 or 14.04 before that.

Don't take any of this as a negative because all this means is that Ubuntu is improving gradually. There are no snap user interface changes making us learn new ways to navigate for the sake of doing so and there are no ground up redesigns causing our systems to become flaky.

Since version 12.04 Ubuntu has been incredibly stable and the most notable improvements have been in performance.

Every other change for a desktop user has seen simple, minor adjustments to the user interface, improving the choice of where menus appear and allowing sites like Facebook and Twitter to appear as desktop applications.

This review therefore is going in a slightly different direction. I wanted to look at Ubuntu purely from the Everyday Linux User point of view and highlight one major improvement that really needs to be made to push it forward.

To do this I installed Ubuntu from scratch and attempted to install all the applications that I would use on a daily basis (or fairly regularly anyway). I then used these applications to see what issues I would find.

What Is New In Ubuntu 15.10?

This section is for those of you who are using Ubuntu already and would like to know whether you should upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10.

Ubuntu 15.10 now uses kernel 4.2 which includes an improved AMDGPU driver for AMD and Radeon GPUs. Kernel 4.2 also includes Intel Broxton support, F2FS file-system encryption support and NV-DIMM support.

In essence if you have an AMD graphics card you should be psyched

Other than that Unity has had some bug fixes, Compiz (the window manager) has had some updates and there are newer versions of the following software available:

Firefox 41

Chromium 45

MATE 1.10

Most of Gnome is now based on version of 3.16

Blueman 2.0 is available (graphical bluetooth manager)

LibreOffice 5.0.2

There is also support for the new Steam controller.

Installation

The Ubuntu installer hasn't changed in years.

Installing Ubuntu is generally very straight forward. All you need is a USB stick and a little bit of time.

Dual booting is a little bit more challenging on a UEFI based machine but my guide goes into much more detail than it probably needs to. It just covers all bases.

If you are using Ubuntu 14.04 and have no need to upgrade then don't bother

If you are using Ubuntu 14.10 then upgrade because you are on an unsupported platform

If you are using Ubuntu 15.04 then upgrade for the same reasons as 14.10

First Impressions

As mentioned in the introduction, Ubuntu has looked the same for a number of years now.

There is the Ubuntu launcher to the left and a panel at the top. In the top right corner are a series of indicators which let you connect to the internet, choose keyboard layout, connect to bluetooth, adjust power settings, adjust audio settings, and log out.

The Dash is split into various views such as home, applications, documents, videos, music and images.

Each view can be selected using the little icons at the bottom of the dash.

Ultimately the best part of the dash is the search bar. Simply start typing what you are looking for and it will appear as an icon. The results returned include applications or files already on your system or items that you may wish to install or view on the web.

Audio

The Ubuntu installer provides an option for installing Fluendo which makes it possible to play MP3 audio.

Most Ubuntu users are however aware of the Ubuntu Restricted Extras metapackage which gives users not only the ability to play MP3 audio but also a Flash player and MS truetype fonts (Arial, Verdana etc).

Here is the problem though and you will spot the theme of this review as we continue.

The main application used for installing software in Ubuntu is the Ubuntu Software Centre.

The Ubuntu Restricted Extras package appears as an option but can't be installed via the Software Centre.

The reason for this is that a license agreement is displayed during the installation process but this never appears when installed via the Software Centre and the installation never completes.

This has been an issue within Ubuntu for many years now and it is a fundamental issue for new users because lets face it, as much as we'd like to believe in the power of music in the OGG format, it was a bit like voting for Betamax when everyone else was playing VHS video cassettes.

The best way to install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package is via the command line using apt-get. I have written a guide showing how to that here.

The actual audio player within Ubuntu is Rhythmbox and it is very good. It more than matches anything available on any other platform and includes the ability to create playlists, filter your music by various categories, subscribe to podcasts, connect to other podcasts and listen to online radio stations. (Click here for a complete guide).

Video

The video player in Ubuntu is called Totem and whilst it is pretty good for playing local videos it doesn't really have Youtube support.

Having the ability to play web videos but not Youtube basically sucks. The first port of call for anybody wanting to watch videos should be the software centre where they should install the VLC media player.

For watching Youtubes you can also try the Minitube application or download videos using the youtube-dl package.

Default Applications

Ubuntu 15.10 comes with the following applications installed by default:

Solitaire

Brasero DVD burner

Cheese Webcam Viewer

Contacts Address Book

Document Viewer (PDFs)

Empathy Instant Messenging

FireFox Web Browser

LibreOffice Office Suite

Mahjongg

Mines

Rhythmbox Audio Player

Shotwell Photo Management

Sudoku

Thunderbird Email Client

Transmission Bittorrent Client

This provides a good base of applications but there are certain tools that many of us use that aren't listed. (For instance Skype, DropBox and Steam).

Installing Applications

As mentioned earlier the main application for installing software in Ubuntu is the Software Centre and I think it has to be the biggest drawback for new users.

Let's take the three applications listed in the previous section, Skype, DropBox and Steam.

Each one of these applications is less straight forward to install than it should be using the Software Centre.

Despite adding the Multiverse and Canonical partners repositories, Skype never appears as an option within the Software Centre. Instead I had to use apt-get to install it. (There is a guide here showing how to install Skype in Ubuntu).

Skype works well when installed and there are no adverse issues.

Dropbox appeared as an option but instead of an install button appearing I had an option to include the multiverse repository. After adding the repository the option to install then appears.

The actual Dropbox package only installs an installer program which then goes ahead and installs the main software.

Dropbox integrates very well with Nautilus (the file manager). You can drag and drop files into a folder that appears and they will be synchronised between your machine and the online storage utility.

Steam is the really baffling one. There is an option in the Ubuntu respository for Steam but when clicked it shows as unavailable.

Why does this happen and why has this been happening for so many versions of Ubuntu?

Don't any of the Ubuntu developers play Steam games or is it the case that they all use apt-get instead?

Incidentally you can easily install Steam using apt-get.

When you run Steam for the first time it downloads an update which is over 200 megabytes in size.

Printers

Ubuntu has good printer support and it is easy to set up a network printer. Wireless printing is definitely the way forward and my printer was picked up straight away by the Ubuntu add printer wizard.

Network Hard Drives

I have a Western Digital My Cloud device and this was picked up instantly by the File Manager.

Hardware support is very good within Ubuntu and is actually far better than the hardware support provided by Windows.

It took me 30 minutes to get the same network drive to be found using Windows and that doesn't include the amount of time it took to download all of the necessary software.

Customising Ubuntu

There isn't much you can customise using the default Unity desktop. There is the Unity Tweak tool which allows you to change a few things but you really are talking about icon sizes, colours etc.

To change the wallpaper you can right click on the desktop and choose "Change Desktop Background".

There are a number of stock images or you can choose one of your own.

Issues

Rant time.

I have been saying for a long time now that the weakest link within Ubuntu is the Software Centre but nothing ever seems to change.

Package managers shouldn't be new to most people nowadays because they use phones with app stores or play stores.

The problem is that not all of the available repositories are switched on straight away and to switch them on requires using a separate tool to the Ubuntu Software Centre.

As a fairly experienced used I am confused by the interface for the Software Centre. I don't know whether I can't find the software I am looking for because I am using it wrong, because there are bugs or because it is so completely unintuitive.

For instance the image above has a button with the words all software. If you click the down arrow next to it you will see options for "provided by Ubuntu", "Canonical Partners" and "Purchase".

If you click on one of these options the list appears to change but it is confused. For instance without any filtering or searches the provided by Ubuntu option shows a large list of applications but the Canonical Partners list shows nothing.

Sometimes it doesn't matter what you select, things like Skype don't appear. As mentioned previously Steam has a broken option and other applications require you to turn on other repositories.

It confuses the hell out of me, so I can only imagine what it does for new users.

In my opinion the Software Centre should by default have all repositories checked with a clear method for unchecking the ones you don't want to use in the same interface and not as a separate tool.

At no point should there be items that I can install via apt-get that never appear in the Software Centre.

Every major issue that I have is caused by the Software Centre. Restricted Extras not installing, Skype not found, Steam broken. These are just a few examples but there are many more.

13 comments:

Fully agree with your views, for daily user who wants a functional OS with easy to use interface, Ubuntu is best. Samba setup is the best of any distro and I run Arch and Gentoo as well. For mass deployment I always use Ubuntu. In cross section of hardware, Ubuntu patches its kernel and firmware wisely leading to least issues and the developer's PPA makes it a breeze to run latest programs.

The Unity interface is perfectly fine. I have to admit to preferring GNOME but Unity still integrates well with the other desktop tools and web applications. It is just the package management that needs sorting.

15.10 it is not working is a different operating system, something is wrong with it, only professional linux users can install it, for me it is impossible, i am using 14.10. i have 2 pc and i bought an original 15.10 thinking that my copy was not good, i have same problems 15.10 does not work it has many problems, 1 of many https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SquashfsErrors

Thanks Gary for the excellent review. And for mentioning the ubuntu-restricted-extras installation bug... again. It's a real pity they haven't even tried to fix it since your last review in which you mentioned the exact same problem. Unfortunately it looks like Canonical has completely given up on their DEB version of Ubuntu, which is being eschewed in favor of the new hotness that is Ubuntu Phone and Snappy packages. As for the Software Center, I imagine you heard by now that they are definitely scrapping it for Gnome Software? In my opinion, this is a real pity, because if the Ubuntu Software Center does have its quirks, Gnome Software is about 10x quirkier... Doesn't look good for the future of "normal" Ubuntu on the Desktop.

Ubuntu 14.04.x, period., other versions are for testing.Unity it's a good DE, except, of course, some dash plugins to disable.What canonical miss it's an effective quality control. So many developers, there's no testing and no free feedback from other countries.For example languages: Philippine english, arabian english, indian english, WTFkstan english?Why canonical don't preinstall 5 or 6 main languages of the world, instead of this crap?Why don't test preinstalled software in ubuntu, like the software "brick&notFound" center?

Sorry Gary, i'm not finished yet.What everyday linux user need, in every part of the world?I think 4 applets in the panel, from first boot: Keyboard layouts, Brightness, Volume audio and Connections.Starting from those little things, configurating a linux distro it's easy, for everyone in the world.If i must searching on web the way to typing, or to reduce the "supernova" coming from my laptop screen... well, it's easier switch back to windows :-(

Hi I am using Ubuntu 15.10 version for past couple of weeks and i am facing the problem of frequent hang while using chrome,libre office. my system specification is intel core processor ,graphic- gallium 0.4 on NVA8 and OS type is 64 bit.can any one suggest me how to solve this issue.

i have a macbook pro 9,2 and there no ubuntu distros that works on a macbook right, not even there newest release. the my mac get's very hot when i run it. even the newest release just doesn't work and/or run on a mac, even when i boot in EFI mode from a USB or A DVD it just doesn't work at all.

linux is by far the worst operating system i have ever used. they just can't get nothing done correctly at all. linux is trash with a capital T.